[Reason.com] And the Award for Most Sanctimonious Non-Apology of the Week Goes To…

Rachel Maddow.

Last night, Maddow pulled some truly Rhodes Scholarship-worthy rhetorical gymnastics in both apologizing for and doubling down on her accusation that former Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) had some kind of prior knowledge of the Oklahoma City bombing. Maddow conceded that she was guilty of a “misstatement” and an “editing error” in accusing the one-term U.S. congressman of being at least partly responsible for the deaths of 168 fellow human beings. But she then made light of her colossally offensive “misstatement” by arguing that her main contention still stands: The important thing, she claimed, isn’t that she said something mindbogglingly slanderous, it’s that she was justified in doing so.

The real vomit-all-over-your-keyboard moment comes at roughly the 2-minute mark, where Maddow sarcastically frames her apology as a chance to congratulate herself on bringing the specter of militant right-wing politics to the public’s attention. “For all the conservative bloggers out there who are extremely angry at me for making that mistake” she said, “thank you. Thank you for signaling such enthusiasm for discussing guys like Steve Stockman, and for getting all the details right. If the country talked a lot more about the Steve Stockmans of the world and anti-government extremism and what the experience of having anti-government extremists in Congress was like for this country the last time we tried it, I think that would be good for us in this country, particularly before this round of elections.”

Tuesday afternoon, Jake Tapper interviewed Bruce Josten, the Executive Vice President for government affairs at the US Chamber of Commerce, about the White House/ Chamber conflict. The Chamber refuses to release its donors list, which the Obama administration is demanding, using serial fabulist Lee Fang’s ThinkProgress report as their guide. The charge is that the Chamber has been receiving foreign money for its political ads.

My friend, Rabbi David Nessenoff, an award winning film-maker, visited the White House for the Jewish Heritage Month Ceremonies. There he had the chance to meet Helen Thomas and asked her about the Middle East:

Go back to Germany and Poland?? Why Ms Thomas? You do remember the Holocaust right? Heck you are old enough to remember the crusades.

There are some people who believe that any criticism of Israel is Anti-Semitism. That belief is as ignorant as Anti-Semitism itself. There is however, a great deal of crossover between hatred of Israel and Hatred of the Jews. To find out what people really mean you need to examine the words they use.

Helen Thomas’ comparing of the IDF to Nazi Germany is nothing but an attempt to water-down the horror of the Holocaust, and to dehumanize Israel. And her advice to the Jews to get the hell out of Palestine, and go back to Poland and Germany is nothing short of anti-Semitism. If Thomas’ comments were directed toward any other group but the Jews, she would have been out of work a very long time ago. Maybe it’s time for Helen’s bosses to retire her to the “The Home For Old Crazy Anti-Semites.

Repulsive!

10 to 1 she’ll stay in the White House Press Corps and 20 to 1 she becomes Obama’s favorite ‘journalist.’

Update 1: She retired, not fired. But still, I lost that one.

Update 2: Controversial comments made by the dean of the White House press corps, Helen Thomas, were “offensive,” but at the same time she had a remarkable career, President Barack Obama said Tuesday. [The Hill]

Still a fan, BO? (Of course the comments were “offensive”, he still wants the Joooos’ vote, doesn’t he?)

Founding Bloggers can confirm that we too captured an image of the writing on Governor Palin’s hand. The notes appear to be very innocuous.

On the other hand, the outrage on the left is being completely misunderstood by the right. Democrats don’t mind that she needed a few notes for her speech. They’re upset that Sarah used her hand, proving once again that she is an unsophisticated hick. Everybody knows that whether you’re taking to sixth grade classroom, or talking dirty to the First Lady, using anything other than a presidential level teleprompter is simply pedestrian.

This is the proof that she’s not qualified to be a vice-president. Self-respecting politicians read word-for-word from prepared speech on teleprompters.

Founding Bloggers can exclusively confirm that President Barack Obama, like Sarah Palin, has used his hand for a notepad in the past. Founding Bloggers has unearthed this shocking, smoking gun photograph that catches the President red handed!

A Justice Department-led task force has concluded that nearly 50 of the 196 detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should be held indefinitely without trial under the laws of war, according to Obama administration officials.

The task force’s findings represent the first time that the administration has clarified how many detainees it considers too dangerous to release but unprosecutable because officials fear trials could compromise intelligence-gathering and because detainees could challenge evidence obtained through coercion.

They just found out about the existence of these dangerous terrorists at Gitmo? Didn’ they say those people were innocent sheep herders caught by eviiiil Boooosh because he liked torture them so much?

Human rights advocates have bemoaned the administration’s failure to fulfill President Obama’s promise last January to close the Guantanamo Bay facility within a year as well as its reliance on indefinite detention, a mechanism devised during George W. Bush’s administration that they deem unconstitutional.

“There is no statutory regime in America that allows us to hold people without charge or trial indefinitely,” said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Appearing on ABC’s “This Week,” the perilously liberal editor of the perilously liberal “The Nation” magazine seemed on a mission to say “Teabaggers” more in a twenty minute television segment than anybody not affiliated with the perilously liberal MSNBC.

Apparently getting offended by the term, the Daily Caller’s Carlson finally said, “Katrina, will you stop with the Teabaggers thing?”